This invention relates to the manufacture of jewelry and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for use in maintaining the integrity of jewelry parts during manufacture.
In the course of making a piece of jewelry, it is often required that certain elements of the initial piece have their integrity preserved during the subsequent manufacturing steps. In particular, certain types of jewelry such as, for example, earrings, have posts which, once attached to the jewelry body, must be preserved in their initial condition during one or more of the subsequent processing steps. Thus, in the case of earrings, the subsequent procedure of electroplating the earring body must be carried out so as not to substantially affect the previously attached earring post, thereby maintaining the post in a condition acceptable for use by the ultimate user.
Generally, in conventional practice, jewelry posts of this type have been protected by placing a rubber sleeve on the post after the post has been affixed to the jewelry body. This sleeving operation is typically performed by manual insertion of the post into the sleeve opening and, as a result, is extremely time consuming. Furthermore, in situations where the end of the sleeve is required to be a certain minimum height above the joint between the jewelry body and the post, the procedure becomes more tedious and consumes even greater amounts of time. As can be appreciated, if a more rapid and mechanized sleeving operation could be realized, a significant savings could be obtained in time and manpower.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved practice for inserting sleeves onto jewelry posts.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved practice for inserting sleeves onto the posts of earrings to protect same during subsequent processing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a practice for inserting sleeves onto the posts of jewelry which is more rapid and requires less manpower than prior practices.